Alexis de Tocqueville et al - "American Institutions and Their Influence"

Agnes H. Morton - "Etiquette"

Coningsby Dawson - "The Glory of the Trenches"

Booth Tarkington - "The Magnificent Ambersons"

Annual Bibliography of Commonwealth Literature 2007
This paper argues that discourses of love in Ghanaian market literature for youth offer a view into complex negotiations of agency and empowerment. Drawing on Deborah Durham's notion of youth as "social `shifters'" and Francis Nyamnjoh's conception of the "interconnectedness" of agency, I take Ghanaian market literature as one specific case of how African literature for youth foregrounds questions of continuity and change as African societies enter into increasingly complex global relations. In this literature for youth, received notions of love, often constructed out of impressions from American pop and hip hop music, carry new notions of agency that compete with existing "domesticated" forms. Authors like Ike Tandoh and Evelyn Tay employ discourses of love to offer youth alternative avenues for empowerment in a context of socio-economic disenfranchizement. In a creative process of "straddling", this writing both reveals and reproduces the contradictions that obtain in youth configurations of agency.

The Continental Monthly, Vol. 6, No 2, August, 1864

V >> Various >> The Continental Monthly, Vol. 6, No 2, August, 1864







COLORS AND THEIR MEANING.


In order to a due understanding of the signification of colors, it is
necessary we should commence at the foundation. Accordingly I shall
begin by saying that colors are primary, secondary, and tertiary.

Primary colors are three: red, yellow, and blue.

RED is the color of greatest heat.

YELLOW is the color of greatest light.

BLUE is the color of chemical change.

In accordance with this philosophical truth, we should naturally expect
to find a preponderance of blue rays from the sun in the spring time,
and so it is.

These rays preponderate at the time of ploughing, sowing, and
germination.

In the summer time, after the plant has started from the ground, and
requires vigorous leaves to bring it to perfection ere the cold winter
rolls around once more, we have the yellow rays. 'Light, more light,' is
then the cry of nature, and as not even length of days affords this
element in sufficient completeness, the sun darts his brightest beams in
'the leafy month of June.'

Later still in the year, after germination is past and growth perfected,
comes the necessity of heat rays to ripen fruit, vegetables, and grain,
and nature's behests are obeyed in the then preponderance of the red
rays. Much of this effect may be due to the _media_ through which the
sun's rays pass. A sensitized photographic paper is not colored as much
at an altitude of three miles in half an hour as is a similar paper upon
the earth's surface in one moment. At any season of the year, gardeners
can either stimulate or retard germination as they place a blue or
yellow glass over the nursling. That the growth of plants is not due
alone to the rays of the sun we can, without experiment, convince
ourselves, as even ordinary observers are well aware that upon some days
plants shoot up so rapidly as to grow almost visibly under their eyes,
and in other conditions of the atmosphere seemingly remain dormant for
days.

The germinating influence, let it be due either to peculiar rays alone,
or to atmospheric state, does not contain much coloring matter. The
first spring flowers are of a pale color; as summer advances we have
brighter hues, but not until the approach of fall do we see Flora in all
her gorgeousness of coloring. The paleness of mountain and arctic
flowers, and the brilliancy of those of the tropics, point to the same
cause which gives the temperate zones their brightest flowers when heat
rays preponderate.

As depth of color seems connected with the red or heat rays; so perfume
belongs rightfully to the summer blossoms; when light is the strongest,
then we have our pinks, and roses, and lilies.

There are also in the spectrum four secondary colors: orange, green,
indigo, and violet. The secondary colors are alternate with the primary
in the spectrum, and are formed by a mixture of the two primary nearest
them--as orange, formed by a union of red and yellow; green, by a
mixture of yellow and blue; indigo and violet, of blue and red. Thus:

Red,

_Orange_,

Yellow,

_Green_,

Blue,

_Indigo_,

_Violet_.

Tertiary colors are many more than both primary and secondary. They are
hues not found in the spectrum. They are nature's stepchildren rather
than children, and many of them might not inappropriately be called
children of art; yet although most of them are of inventions that man
has sought out, they are at best but shades, and must all look back to
the spectrum as their common parent.

Each of the primary colors forms a simple contrast to the other two;
thus blue is contrasted by yellow and by red, either of which forms a
simple contrast to it; but as it is a law of color that compound
contrasts are more effective than simple in the proportion of two to
one, it follows that a mixture of either two of the primitive colors is
the most powerful contrast possible with the other.

Red and yellow form orange, the greatest and the most harmonious
contrast to blue; red and blue form violet or purple, so much admired in
contrast with yellow in the pansy; yellow and blue form green, the
contrast to red, and the color needed to restore the tone of the optic
nerve when strained or fatigued by undue attention to red. This is the
most common and admirable contrast in the vegetable kingdom; the
brilliant red blossom or fruit, with green leaves, as instance the fiery
tulip, the crimson rose, the scarlet verbena, the burning dahlia, the
cherry and apple trees, the tomato or loveapple of my childhood, and the
scarlet maple and sumach of our American October.

There are two distinct harmonies of color: the harmony of contrast, and
the harmony of shading. The former is the harmony of striking
diversities found in nature, and the other a mellowing of colors, or
blending of similar hues, attributable to art.

From this little synopsis of the effects and uses of the prismatic
colors, we shall be enabled the better to understand both the ancient
and modern popular ideas as to colors as representatives and
correspondences. Colors have a mental, moral, and physical
significance--a good and a bad import. The one to which I shall first
direct your attention is that which most readily strikes the eye.


RED.

Which Thoreau called the 'color of colors,' in the Hebrew signified to
have dominion, and in early art was symbolical or emblematic of Divine
love, creative power, etc. The word Adam, we have been taught, signifies
red man; it does mean 'the blood,' which, of course, originated 'to be
red,' as a secondary signification. Lanci, the great interpreter of
Sacred Philology at the Vatican, deems 'The Blusher,' to be the true
meaning of the word Adam. God created man, male and female created He
them, and called their name Adam. A blush, so becoming on the
countenance of feminine beauty, is generally deemed a sign of weakness
when visible upon a man's face. But if the above interpretation be
correct, a blush is a man's birthright, which no sense of false shame
should prevent him from modestly claiming. Red, as signifying
perfection, dominion, fruition, was appropriately the name of our first
parents, whether we regard the account of the creation to be literally
understood, as the old theologians believe, or spiritually and
typically, as the modern ones insist.

Red is the color of what is intense, be it love or hatred, kindness or
cruelty. It denotes the fulness of strong emotions; alike the glowing of
conscious love or the blazing of fierce anger, the fiery ardor of daring
and valor, or the fierce cruelty of hatred and revenge. Of our own
star-spangled banner, we sing:

'The red is the blood of the brave.'

The red garments of cardinals, and especially their red hats, are
supposed to betoken their readiness to spill their blood for Jesus
Christ.

Red is the color of undeveloped ideas. It is the hue which most quickly
attracts the attention of children and savages. All barbarous nations
admire red; many savages paint their faces vermilion before entering
battle, to which they look forward as the means of attaining enviable
position in their tribe; for with barbarians physical prowess is the
only superiority.

Some animals are excited to madness by the sight of this color. The bull
and the turkey take it as a signal of defiance, which they rush to meet.
'Come, if you dare,' they read it, and impetuously hasten to the onset.

When the bloody Jeffreys was in his bloodiest humor, he wore into court
a red cap, which was the sure death warrant of those about to be tried.

The death garment of Charlotte Corday was a red chemise--fit emblem of
the ungovernable instincts, the wild rioting in blood of that reign of
terror.

Christ was crucified in a scarlet robe, and in that color of love and
perfection, perfected his offering of love for mankind.


YELLOW.

Anciently symbolized the sun, the goodness of God, marriage, faith, and
fruitfulness. Old paintings of St. Peter represent him in a yellow
mantle. The Venuses were clothed in saffron-colored tunics; Roman brides
of an early day wore a veil of an orange tinge, called the _flameum_, a
flame--a flame which, kindled at Hymen's torch, it is to be hoped was
ever burning, never consuming. As every good has its antipodal evil, so
every color has its bad sense, which is contrary or opposite to its
first or good signification.

In a bad sense, yellow means inconstancy, and the aesthetic Greeks, fully
carrying out this meaning, compelled their public courtesans to
distinguish themselves by mantles of saffron color. The radical sense of
saffron is to fail, to be hollow, to be exhausted. In tracing customs,
it is easy to see the bias unknowingly received from natural
significations, significations which take their rise in the spiritual
world. The _San Benito_ or _auto-da-fe_ dress of the Spanish Inquisition
was yellow, blazoned with a flaming cross; and, as a mark of contempt
for the race, the Jews of Catholic Spain were condemned to wear a yellow
cap. Distinguishing colors in dress have ever been one of the most
common methods of expressing distinction of class and differences of
faith, until thence has arisen the imperative adage: 'Show your colors;'
and he who refuses to do so is despised as a hypocrite or changeling.

Yellow, as a color, finds but few admirers among modern enlightened
nations; it is recognized as the color of shams; but in China, that
country of contrarities, where printing, fish breeding, gas burning, and
artesian wells have been known and stationary for centuries, where
almond-shaped eyes, club feet, and long cues are types of beauty, where
old men laughingly fly kites, and little boys look gravely on, where
white is mourning, and everything is different from elsewhere--there
yellow is the most admired of colors, restricted to the use of royalty
alone under penalty of death.

Yellow is the most searching of colors, as indeed it should be from its
correspondence with light. It is gaudy, and does not inspire respect,
for it brings into view every imperfection. Every defect in form or
manner is rendered conspicuous by it, and we involuntarily scan the
whole person of the unfortunate and tasteless wearer of it.


BLUE.

In early art, represented truth, honor, and fidelity, and even at this
day we associate blue and truthfulness. Christ and the Virgin were
formerly painted with blue mantles, and blue is especially recognized as
the Virgin's color. We can never turn our eyes upward without seeing
truth's emblematical color. How appropriate that the heavens should be
blue! Of truthfulness and faithfulness it should be our constant
reminder.

Primary blue enters as a compound into three other colors of the
spectrum: green, indigo, and violet. As a primary color, it is much more
rarely seen in nature than either red or yellow. We have few blue birds,
few blue flowers, few blue fruits. As one of a compound, it is oftener
found than red. The grass, the leaves, everywhere proclaim the marriage
of good, as yellow anciently represented, and truth, as blue symbolized.
There is a deep significance in the change that has come over mankind's
view of the meaning of the first of these colors. With the loss of
faith, the tearing apart of truth and goodness, has come a change of
correspondence. Men have everywhere turned away from the light, though
still professing to strive for truth.

Each color possesses a character of its own, which proclaims to the
close observer the peculiar qualities of that to which it belongs. The
horticulturist reads the peculiarities of the fruit as readily by its
color as the phrenologist reads his by his 'bumps.' The red one, he will
tell you, is sour, the white one sweet, the pale one flat, and the green
one alkaline; that one is a good table apple, this one a superior cider
apple; and if you further ask the characteristics of a good cider apple,
he will tell you again it is known by its color, not only of the skin,
but also of the pulp, and that it can be foretold whether cider will be
weak, thin, and colorless, or possess strength, or richness, or color.

The botanist, too, regards color as indicative of quality, the yellow
flower having a bitter taste and a fixed, unfading hue, the black, a
poisonous, destructive property, etc., etc.

Truth, of which we have seen blue was the correspondent, is never
superficial, and, although apparent truths lie upon the surface, yet a
common adage locates truth at the bottom of a well. Seamen acknowledge
deep indigo blue of water to be indicative of profound depth. Of the
three or primitive colors, the red or heat color, which has been termed
light felt, the yellow or light color, which has been called heat seen,
and the blue, a color of chemical change, which is the color of growth,
these correspond in an unknown degree to the love, wisdom, and truth of
the Supreme One; heat to love, for love is heat; light to wisdom, for
wisdom is light; and germination and growth to truth, for by truth souls
grow into wisdom and love. The more we explore the arcana of nature the
more we will be enabled to discover the correspondence of the natural
with the spiritual world.


WHITE.

Is the emblem of light, every white ray of light containing all the
prismatic colors; and as it symbolizes innocence and purity, it is the
color must appropriate for clothing infants, brides, and the dead. We
think of the angels as clothed in white. At the transfiguration of our
Lord and Master, his raiment became shining, exceeding white as snow, as
no fuller on earth can white them; and in one of the Evangelists his
raiment is described as at that time as white as the light, and so our
highest comparison of whiteness is 'as white as the light.'


BLACK.

Formed by a combination in equal proportions of the three primitive
colors in equal intensity, is the color of despair. As mourning, it is
only suitable for those who despair of the future of their friends; but
it is preeminently unsuitable to be worn for those who die in Christian
faith with a Christian hope. Despite its gloomy hue, it has almost
become a sacred color among Christian nations, being worn as the dress
of the priest in his ministerial office, and doubly hallowed from its
association with the dead.

Black, as an ornamental color, should be below all others, for artistic
effect. An artistic dressmaker places the dark or black plaids or
stripes beneath the others. This natural correspondence is almost
universally recognized among enlightened nations in clothing for the
feet. They not only look smaller and more tasteful in black shoes than
in colored, but economy also sanctions them as more useful. The
universal tendency of the nineteenth century is to utilitarianism; the
one question asked is: What is the use? and in use is beauty ever found.

Ethnological investigation shows that black or dark-colored races have
invariably preceded settlement by the whites. This is in accordance with
the law of color above laid down, viz., that, _artistically_, black is
below the other colors (and now, in order that I may not be
misunderstood, I explicitly say that because, _artistically_, black is
the lowest color, it by no means follows that I deem black or olive or
yellow races subjects for slavery, or unworthy of social and political
rights). In accordance with the above axiom, savage and half-civilized
races are found to be at the present day black haired and black eyed. I
will also venture the assertion that nine tenths of all the people in
the world have black hair.

The Hindoo legend of the eighth incarnation of Vishnu under the name of
Crishna, makes him then of a bluish-black color, which the name Crishna
signifies. His supposititious father, Wanda, said:

'When I named him Crishna, on account of his color, the priest told
me he must be the god who had taken different bodies, red, white,
yellow, and black, in his various incarnations, and now he had
assumed a black color again, since in black all colors are
absorbed.'

Although among Caucasian nations, and especially in cosmopolitan
America, we do not adduce intellectual superiority from the shades or
degrees of whiteness, yet it is said of the Moors that the more the
color approaches the _black_, the handsomer and of more decisive
character are the men.

It is a physiological fact brought to light partially through the
census, that black-eyed races and black-eyed people are more subject to
blindness than others. It has also been shown that black-eyed men are
not as good marksmen as blue-eyed or light-eyed men.

Not only are different races of men subject to different diseases, but
statistics prove that among Caucasian nations, complexion and disease
are in some way connected, as for instance, consumption is more rife
among dark-haired and dark-eyed people than others, and more rapid with
those dark-haired and dark-eyed people who have very fair complexion. As
the difference between golden and black hair lies in that there is in
the one case an excess of sulphur and oxygen with a deficiency of
carbon, and in the other an excess of carbon and a deficiency of sulphur
and oxygen, it can easily be seen why such deficiency or excess, if
arising from idiosyncrasy of the system, should predispose to dissimilar
diseases. But here a wide field yet lies open for experimental and
physiological research.


GREEN.

There is scarcely a color but has been or is held sacred by some nation
or religion. With Mahommedans green is the sacred hue. The prophet
originally wore a turban of that dye, and the sultan shows due
preference for that color.

The tomb of David, which is in possession of the Mahommedans, and which
was at great hazard visited by a lady within the past few years, is
covered by a green satin tapestry, and over it hangs a satin canopy of
red, blue, yellow, and green stripes, the three primitive and the
sacred, compound color.

Green also seems to have been the sacred color in ancient Peru, virgins
of the sun wearing robes of that hue. The ancient Mexican priests also,
in the performance of their functions, wore crowns of green and yellow
feathers, and at their ears hung green jewels. Precious stones of a
green color were held in higher estimation by the Aztecs than any other.
When the Spaniards were first admitted to an audience with Montezuma, he
wore no other ornament on his head than a _panache_ of plumes of royal
green.

Green comes in the class of secondary colors, being a compound of yellow
and blue, and signifies pale, new, fresh, growing, flourishing (like a
green bay tree); and also unripe, when applied to either fruits or men,
which, as far as the human is concerned, is a term of reproach. A person
without experience, either in position, behavior, or use of anything, is
termed green, and laughed at. They are fresh, new, and, instead of the
admiring exclamation, How green it is! as applied to a plant, is the
reproachful one, How green he is!

At different seasons of the year, different colors are appropriate in
dress. Light green is the color of freshness, youth, and spring, and
more suitable to be worn in the spring of the year and by young persons,
than later in the season or by mature women. Dark green, like crimson
and orange, is a warmer, more intensified color, with less of liveliness
and freshness.


PURPLE.

Is the type of monarchical enlightenment. With Caucasian nations it has
been the symbolic color of royalty, until 'invest with the purple,' in
the course of ages, comes to mean kingdom, government, power, to rule.
Purple is formed by the union of blue and red, truth and valor. Happy
the people who are truly governed by truth and valor! The Tyrian purple
was famous in Homer's days, and our dreams of Tyre and its splendor are
all colored by this most gorgeous of dyes, the manufacture of which from
a species of shell fish gave this ancient city a celebrity which all its
other arts combined could not equal. This was one of the symbolic colors
with which the high priest's robe was wrought in figures of pomegranates
upon its skirt; and when Solomon sent to Hiram, king of Tyre, for a
cunning workman to assist in building the temple, he did not fail to
require he should be skilled in purple. During the time of the Roman
emperors, the Tyrian purple was valued so highly that a pound of cloth
twice dipped was sold for about one hundred and fifty dollars. Even a
purple border about a robe was a mark of dignity.


VIOLET.

Is a color that has often been worn by martyrs; formed of a union of red
and blue, it signifies love and truth, and their passion and suffering.
It is the court mourning color all over Europe, with the exception of
England. It is the softest of the prismatic colors, and its very name
carries us in thought to the modest sweet flower which is Flora's emblem
of humility.

* * * * *

Of one of the colors of the spectrum I have failed to speak, because
there was so little to say. Orange is a bright, warm color, not quite as
intense as red, still one which the eye does not readily seek. Its
suitableness in dress is confined mainly to children. Upon them our eye
naturally seeks for bright, warm colors, and rests with a kind of
pleasure upon rich hues. There is nothing upon which the public taste
requires more education than upon the arrangement and modification of
colors. Gardeners need it in setting their plants and putting in their
seeds; florists, in the arrangement of their bouquets; furnishers, in
the decoration of apartments; and especially the fashion leaders, who
decide what colors or shades must or must not be worn together.
Sometimes hues are conjoined by them, that, no matter how loudly
proclaimed _au fait_, the height of style, or _a la mode_, are never
artistic, and no _dicta_ can make them so. A fashion framer should needs
be a natural philosopher, and hold the rudiments of all science in her
grasp. Botany, mineralogy, conchology should walk as handmaidens to
philosophy; optics should steer the rudder of color's bark when launched
upon the sea of taste.

If, when dressed, the aim is to present a light and graceful toilet,
light and delicate shades of color must be worn; no crimson, dark green,
purple, or indigo, but rose, light green, azure, or lavender, with a due
admixture of white, must be the hues chosen. White serves as an
admirable break, and prevents the appearance of violent transition. It
is none the less requisite in bouquets, where no two shades of the same
color should be allowed without either white or green as a separator.
Very handsome self-colored bouquets can be arranged by giving a finish
of the complementary shade. One of the most beautiful I ever remember to
have seen was scarlet verbenas with a base of rose-geranium leaves, the
whole set in a small antique green-and-gold vase.

Although the mature fall of the year clothes itself in gay colors, it is
deemed an evidence of immaturity for women in the fall time of life to
sport crimson and scarlet and orange. Sober grays (which mean old,
mature), quiet brown, and even sombre blacks, are rather what are looked
for. To dress young when people are old, deceives no one. There is a
beauty of age as well as a beauty of youth. Those who live to be old
have had their share of the former: why should they seek to deprive
themselves of the latter? Aside from the appropriateness of color as to
age, there are yet others as to size and complexion. Light-haired men
should always wear _very dark_ cravats, in order to give tone and
expression to the face. Large women should wear warm colors, if they
wish to create a pleasant impression. They cannot attain grace by any
aid of color, while they will lose the dignity they might naturally
claim if they confined themselves to warm, grave shades.

An unartistic arrangement of light or drapery in an apartment will
totally destroy the harmony of the most carefully prepared toilet. Rooms
can be toned warm or cold, but, unless some especial object is sought,
neutral tints should predominate, and violent contrasts should be
avoided.

Who has failed to notice the fantastic tricks played at times upon some
body of worshippers, where light to the church is admitted through
stained glass windows? A lambent red flame lighting up the hair of a
man's head, while at the same moment his beard is blue and luminous.
Over the shoulders of another, the purple mantle of royalty seems about
falling, investing him for a moment with regal splendors, while perhaps
the cadaverous hue of his next neighbor's face well fits him to be some
imagined victim of his new majesty's anger.

Color ranks as one of the earliest arts. No nation is so low but it
makes some attempt at decorative color, and we may be well assured it
was one of the earliest, if not the earliest method employed in
transmitting intelligence. When this country was first discovered, the
Peruvians were making use of small knotted cords of various colors,
termed _quippu_, as mediums of records and messages. Our own North
American savages employed wampum, made from various colored shells, for
a similar purpose. Color played its part in ancient Egyptian
hieroglyphics. It speaks to the eye sooner than form. A black flag
hoisted upon the battle field proclaims louder than words the demoniac
cruelty that reigns, while a white signifies that submission has been
decided upon. Joseph's coat of many colors proclaimed the father's
favoritism to his brothers, and worked a mighty change in the history of
the race to which he belonged. This very instance, if we possessed no
other, would prove to us the high estimation in which color was held,
and its symbolic meaning, in the most ancient times.

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